it is the world's 11th largest economy with more than 140 million consumers, and the last major economy to join the world trade organization. american companies and workers must compete on a level playing field with our foreign competitors and russia to succeed. when president obama first asked congress to remove russia from long-standing human rights legislation and grant permanent normal trade relations for russia, he suggested that we do it unconditionally. even before russia joined the w.t.o., president obama and his team argued that congress should quickly pass a clean bill. given the myriad problems we have with russia, it is -- it has always been very hard for me to understand this position. president obama and his team appeared almost manic in their attempts to avoid offending president putin and his government or doing anything at all to upset their failed reset policy. fortunately, just as congress did in 1974 when they created jackson-vanik, we insisted on more. working side by side with our senate and house colleagues in both parties, we drafted a bill which serves our econo